Between August 6-12, Hungary will host the fourth Samsara festival, a week-long celebration of the free spirit, love, peace, and unity, taking place near Siófok-Töreki. This year’s event has many differences in comparison to previous years, but the essence of the festival remains unchanged.

The festival will still take place in Siófok-Töreki but will move one kilometer away from the previous year’s spot. The organizer of the festival, Csaba Czinkóczky, told index.hu that they “could not imagine a better place for the festival.”

Just as in previous years, the festival still doesn’t have any sponsors or investors and places people, music, nature and yoga above all else. A new European land art festival involving creative minds from all around the world awaits visitors.

(photo: Eszter Gordon / samsarafestival.eu)

The worldwide annual psychedelic festival for yoga, music, dance and nature lovers is again hosting lecturers, coaches, psychologists and healers. Along with 130 yoga workshops, seances and lectures, there will also be a Psybient music festival with over 140 music artists and DJs performing on three stages.

The Samsara festival is growing every year – the first event attracted about a thousand people, while this year organizers are expecting up to ten thousand visitors. In the first three years, 80 percent of the visitors were foreigners; this year, organizers hope they can attract more Hungarians as well. The festival officially starts on Monday 6 August, and takes place a week after Ozora, giving audiences and performers a chance to visit both festivals.

(photo: samsarafestival.eu)

This year, organizers have also opened an animal shelter. According to Czinkóczky, after last year’s event, 13 horses were saved, and now they operate a horse shelter with local vets. This spring, 47 goats joined the horses along with dogs who have suffered abuse. The shelter is run by volunteers and cooperates with several foundations. Many performers offered to donate the money they earned from the festival to the shelter. In fact, one of the biggest stars of the event, Simon Posford, donated half of what he made to the animals.

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According to the festival’s website, they are launching a program for disadvantaged and at-risk youth and young adults suffering from psychological disorders. They will help “participants heal from their emotional traumas and foster hope by showing that they are needed, appreciated, accepted and loved throughout the entire mind-, body- and spirit-healing process.” The horse shelter’s aim is to focus on disconnecting kids from “the virtual life they live in and replace emptiness with real values and content” as they believe that it will ultimately change their lives.